After the Gods
by Sands Buisle
Summary: The gods fell, marking the beginning of a new and terrible age of suffering and darkness. It lasted all of three days before the demigods took back the world. But they couldn't just hand it back to the gods, even if they wanted to. So they had to take the reigns, and try to lead mankind as they rebuild civilisation.


At First, there was nothing but Khaos. Nothing existed, yet existence was not empty. From the Khaos, Gaia was born. The Earth appeared, followed by the Sky, and the Ocean, and the Night, and Time. They were known as the Protogenoi, and they were the first beings to come out of Khaos. And so began the Second Age.

Ouranos and Gaia had children- first the Cyclopes, then the Hekatonkheires, then the Titans. He sealed the first two groups within Tartarus, which angered Gaia. She convinced one of her Titan children, Kronos, to oppose his father and overthrow him. And so began the Third Age.

Kronos feared meeting the same fate as his father, and so when his children were born, he ate them. But the sixth child his wife Rhea hid, and one day he released his brothers and sisters, and rose to war against the Titans. And so began the Fourth Age.

Then the Gods fell. After nonstop fighting against the Titans, followed by the Gigantes, they were weakened enough to fall before a new group, spawned by Tartarus and Nyx. A new Age dawned- a terrible age of darkness and suffering.

It lasted all of three days. In their haste to overthrow the Gods and succeed where their predecessors have failed, the Fifth rulers overlooked _why_ their predecessors failed- the demigods. Weakened by their fight with the gods, they stood no chance against the Heroes, and were cut down, one by one. Three days after the fall of Olympus, the demigods retook the world, and began the Sixth Age.

The Heroes could not give the Gods their domains back- they were too weak, and the Ancient Laws would not allow it. And so they began to rebuild Civilisation, which had crumbled at the Gods' defeat. And so a new Chapter in the history of man began, a new Age of suffering and joy, of hardship and friendship, of loss and love.

Civilisation had to begin anew. From humble beginnings, man had to grow, like grass trimmed short, they reached for the sun, hoping to regain the heights robbed of them. The Heroes, in the meantime, did what all immortals do- breed. It takes many deities to run a pantheon, after all. But when their love bore fruit, they were surprised.

Like them, their children were born mortal, with an aura that attracted monsters. The new demigods had to learn to fight, to protect themselves and master their powers. Many died young, and few attained much power. But eventually, one rose to every challenge, defeated every foe, and overcame every obstacle. She grew stronger and stronger, until her power began to rival that of the Heroes when the Gods fell.

And then she ceased being a demigod. She became a Hero, immortal, without any intervention on their part. They welcomed her, and wondered how it had happened. But then another demigod attained similar power, and soon the immorality that came with it. And then they realised- like them, their children must survive as mortal demigods, becoming more and more powerful, until they achieve immortality. They do not need to sire children with mortals in order to sort out problems in the world below- their children fulfilled the role they themselves had once played just as well.

And so, Chiron was tasked once more in raising demigods, only these had to be raised for their entire mortal life, from birth to hero-hood - or death. And so the adventures continued, demigods fighting to survive and achieve glory, with the grand prize of become a true Hero.

 **Author's Note**

I really need to stop with these. More than half the chapters of all my stories put together (both original and fanfiction) are labelled 'prologue'.

But here it is, an idea that suddenly attacked me when reading a fanfiction (even though it had nothing to do with the fanfiction except both being PJO fanfics). The idea here is that the gods were defeated- doesn't really matter who beat them, just that the demigods defeated whoever it was- and either because of Ancient Laws or the gods being too beat up, our heroes couldn't just hand them back the universal throne, and thus must take the mantle.

If this were to continue, I could set it at any point in history and handwave any inaccuracies as minor differences. The idea is that history repeats itself, but not perfectly. It is actually quite prevalent in the books.

The term hero is being used to define the new race of deities- I felt calling them 'demigods' would be a bit silly, and liked how 'hero' seemed to be almost interchangeable with 'half-blood' and 'demigod'. Their children are referred to as 'demigods' before achieving immortality as a nod to the heroes origins, and were added because I the idea of the heroes playing the cheating game like their predecessors left a bad taste in my mouth (mind actually, but I think we're getting metaphorgotten here…). I could still decide to add them if I were to continue, and they would be 'half-bloods' in addition to 'demigods', although they wouldn't become immortal through getting stronger. The demigod thing also avoids the question of why the gods stopped having divine children with each other. It also mean the full-blooded demigods can have any power set, unique to them (and previous demigods who failed to achieve immortality) rather than powers like their parents -especially since they have _two_ divine parents.

I'll probably post another little snippet about this, since I've already written out a new calendar and what the domains of each of the twelve main heroes are. I just need to figure out the story(ies) to tell and when/where to set them.


End file.
